Al Hayat newspaper published a report on the difficulties that young Lebanese youth entrepreneurs face and the activities of the “Bader” programme which seek to provide opportunities for young people through collaboration with Lebanese business people who believe in private entrepreneurship as a key vehicle for healthy economic growth.

The main problem that young people face is in financing their businesses given their scarce resources and the absence of tangible governmental support to such initiatives.  In addition, political instability and insecurity is a major challenge to emerging businesses coupled with limited professional skills and poor public relations.  All these factors limit the scope for the development of an entrepreneurship culture in Lebanon.

Despite the above, and according to Bader’s project’s manager, Joelle Yazbeck, her group provides several solutions to enable young people to succeed in their businesses through its collaboration with more than 30 established enterprises.  These include, according to Yazbeck, a) education and awareness on the principles of private entrepreneurship through workshop and university scholarship, b) collaboration and networking between young entrepreneurs and well established business people in Lebanon and abroad; and c) financing through Bader’s investment fund and its Lebanese business network which is investing in emerging business and facilitating access to those bank loans which have terms that are adequate for small and medium enterprises.

Source: Al-Hayat 25 March 2013

The UNDP Human Development Report for 2013 which was published under the title “The rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World indicates that Lebanon has climbed to the 72nd place out of a total of 187 countries.
The report notes an increase in life expectancy at birth by 6.2 in addition to a 2.9 increase mean years of schooling and 77% in the GDP per capita and that is between 1990 and 2012.
According to the same report, Lebanon’s human development indicator for 2012 is 0.745 and which is less than the average of 0.758 for those countries with a high and above average indicators but is higher than the average of the Arab countries (0.652)
The report noted the deterioration in Lebanon’s gender equality indicator which was calculated at 0.433 thus placing Lebanon in the 73d position out of a total of 143 countries whose GE index was calculated for 2012.  The report further highlights that women’s participation in parliament does not exceed 3.1% whilst 51% of adult women have reached the secondary and higher education levels compared to 55.4% for males.
Source: Al-Nahar 16 March, L’Orient Le Jour 21 March 2013

My Nationality is a Right for me and my Family Campaign organised yesterday a sit-in in front of the seat of the cabinet in Ryad Solh square.  The purpose of the event was to remind the Prime Minister of the promise he made on the same date only a year back with regards to granting women equal rights to transmit nationality.  This promise was to be repealed shortly after by the Ministerial Commission set up for that purpose by the Prime Minister and which decided to undermine rights and offer instead meager services to women.  Protesters chanted a number of slogans in which they expressed their utter refusal to being granted services in lieu of rights.

Mariam Ghazal, an activist in the campaign read the official communiqué released for the event indicating that a year has elapsed since the PM’s promise and which he and his cabinet failed to honor.  The communiqué notes that the Cabinet has failed women as well as its commitments to the constitution and to the international conventions that are supposed to be binding.

The Campaign called on women to free themselves from their political, confessional and other allegiances and rebel against injustice and inequality through actively participating in the upcoming major event that the Campaign will organize on April 14th to commemorate the civil war in Lebanon.

The Campaign also reiterated its commitment to pursue its struggle with all the concerned women and all throughout Lebanon through holding candidates for the elections accountable to women and to collaborate with all other stakeholders working for full and inclusive citizenship rights.

Shortly after the sit-in, PM wrote on his FB status that he will be discussing again the issue of the reform of the nationality law so that women have equal rights to men.

Source: Al-Akhbar, Al-Safir, Al-Mustaqbal 22 March 2013